I have to take a strong stance against Lana Polansky’s article, “Video game music: more than just bleeping and blooping,” from last week, which incorrectly identified the game title in which the Nintendo character Link utilizes a pan flute.
The offending photo caption, “Link harnesses the power of the pan flute in LoZ: Wind Waker,” incorrectly refers to the adventure in which Link used a baton to control the direction of the wind, as well as to control strong gales to propel him to other areas of the map.
Link, in fact, used a pan flute in the recently released The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS, which can be played by blowing into the console’s internal microphone to simulate a real pan flute.
I would, however, like to commend Ms. Polansky for her reference to Koji Kondo, the original composer for The Legend of Zelda, in which Link utilizes a magic recorder 8212; which is often incorrectly referred to as a flute 8212; to summon tornadoes to transport him to nearby dungeons, and which was integral to defeating Digdogger in Level Five: Lizard Labyrinth.
Christopher Olson
English literature
